Irony of punishing attempted suicide

Joseph Banda attempted suicide after his girlfriend of three years dumped him for another man. He claims the woman was an apple of his eye, hence he thought the only way out for him was to end his life.

Relatives found him in his room foaming after he took rat poison. He was taken to hospital where he was arrested on his hospital bed and charged with attempted suicide.

People commit suicide for various reasons. Like the case of Joseph, emotional stress can drive people to take their lives while others commit suicide due to financial difficulties or illness.

But the question is why should the State prosecute someone who tries to end their life?

Namiwawa resident, Samson Smith—who deals in electronic gadgets—argues that there is justification for government to put on trial those that attempt suicide. After all, he says, it is their life.

Smith further argues that in most cases, government does not provide solutions to problems that force people to end their lives, hence the lack of morality in the State’s decision to prosecute such people.

“I have a brother who was imprisoned for attempting suicide and I always wonder why he has been punished like this.

“Maybe this is a way of stopping people from ending their lives, but I still believe that putting such people in jail does not help either because most of these people are traumatised. How does incarceration help them? Why can’t government find other ways of healing these people?” he wonders.

Head of Chilinde Two Mosque Sheik Tawakkal Ameen says taking one’s life is the same as committing murder, and that the act is against Islamic beliefs.

He argues that people must never take life for granted as it belongs to Allah.

“Allah is the one who guards our life and is able to provide us with whatever we need and so there is no justification for committing suicide. People will have so many reasons for committing suicide, but I can tell you that the people mentioned in the Quran faced daunting challenges and cannot be compared to those people are facing now, but no one committed suicide and in fact, the challenges they faced only made these people stronger. This is the spirit we must all have.

“Therefore, the State has to do something to these people; it is not right,” he says.

Blantyre CCAP Synod Reverend Paul Mawaya agrees with Ameen that committing suicide falls in the category of murder and, therefore, a sin worth punishment.

“The Bible is very clear on these issues in the book of Leviticus; suicide is not allowed and must be discouraged and so, The Church is against it,” he says.

Lawyer Mandala Mambulasa, who is also president of Malawi Law Society (MLS), says the life of a person is owned by the State, hence suicide is an offense.

He adds that State needs stable citizens to perform State duties and pay tax to keep the country running.

“It would be chaotic if the State could allow suicide… problems will always be there and taking one’s life because of challenges is not the answer. Problems are supposed to be faced head on,” he says.

Mambulasa acknowledges the lack of government support to people going through emotional breakdown.

“I don’t know how these problems can be sorted out from the root, but these people need psychologists or psychiatrists to help them with their situations, but due to resources in Malawi, access to such assistance is limited.

“But if people survive suicide attempt, they need to be prosecuted; that is how it is. The State cannot afford to have people full of people suicidal thoughts,” he says.